Australia Stocks: Alumina, Anvil, BHP, CSR, Equinox, Queensland

By Shani Raja

July 11 (Bloomberg) -- The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 10, or 0.2 percent, to 4,947.40 at 1:45 p.m. in Sydney. The broader All Ordinaries Index gained 12.80, or 0.3 percent, to 5,033.30, while the futures index expiring in September lost 2 points to 4,944.

Mining shares: BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP AU), the world's largest mining company, advanced A$1.13 cents, or 2.9 percent, to A$39.93, the most since June 17. Rio Tinto Group (RIO AU) gained A$2.52, or 2.1 percent, to A$124.12, the most in a week.

A measure of six metals traded on the London Metal Exchange advanced 1.7 percent. Zinc rose 6.7 percent, copper 0.2 percent and nickel 2.1 percent.

Oil companies: Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL AU), Australia's second-largest oil and gas producer, rose A$2.06, or 3.6 percent, to A$59.96, the most since May 29. Santos Ltd. (STO AU) jumped 45 cents, or 2.4 percent, to A$18.91, the most in two weeks.

Crude oil for August delivery rose $5.60, or 4.1 percent, to settle at $141.65 a barrel at 2:53 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the biggest one-day increase since June 6.

Alumina Ltd. (AWC AU), partner in the world's biggest producer of the material used to make aluminum, rallied 33 cents, or 7.8 percent, to A$4.56, the most since Feb. 15 and the index's third-biggest gainer. China's biggest aluminum producers, the largest in the world, agreed yesterday to cut output by as much as 10 percent to ease a power shortage, sending metal prices to their highest ever.

Anvil Mining Ltd. (AVM AU), an Australian producer of copper in the Democratic Republic of Congo, advanced A$2.02, or a record 22 percent, to A$11.02, after saying it raised C$296.7 million ($293.7 million) in a private placement of shares to fund development of its African projects.

CSR Ltd. (CSR AU), Australia's third-largest maker of building products, rose 14 cents, or 7.1 percent, to A$2.11, the most since July 2004. The company's rating was raised to ``overweight'' from ``neutral'' by JPMorgan Chase& Co., and to ``outperform'' from ``neutral'' by Credit Suisse Group AG. CSR was the index's biggest gainer.

Equinox Minerals Ltd. (EQN AU), developing Africa's largest copper mine, added 21 cents, or 5.1 percent, to A$4.31, the most in almost a month. The company may start production at the Lumwana project in Zambia within five weeks, after a fire gutted a processing plant's substation and transformer two days ago.

National Australia Bank Ltd. (NAB AU), the countries biggest by assets, declined 57 cents, or 2.1 percent, to A$27.04, reversing two days of gains. The lender said it's in talks to buy ABN Amro Holding NV's investment banking businesses in Australia and New Zealand from Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, and separately that it may have to increase provisions for $1.1 billion of investments in collateralized debt obligations as the global economy weakens.

Queensland Gas Co. (QGC AU), BG Group Plc's partner in a proposed Australian liquefied natural gas plant, advanced 27 cents, or 6 percent, to A$4.79, the most since June 24 and the eighth-biggest gainer. Queensland said it will increase the cash component of its offer for Roma Petroleum NL to 11 cents from 10 cents.

To contact the reporter on this story: Shani Raja in Sydney at sraja4@bloomberg.net.